The following letter was written by Mohammed Barrie, a Sierra Leonean American, to US Ambassador David Reimer, criticizing him for his recent comments on the outcome of elections in Sierra Leone:
Dear Ambassador Reimer and Carter Center:
I am writing on behalf of majority Sierra Leoneans living in the United States to appeal to your devotion to democracy to refrain from making inciting statements that may cause political trauma and shattering irreparable experience among the youths and people of Sierra Leone.
On June 23rd, 2023, Sierra Leoneans went to the polls to elect their president, parliamentarians, and councilors. The election was generally peaceful, free, fair, and transparent according to the reckoning of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), the Commonwealth, the United Nations, and local Civil Society organizations. The reelection of His Excellency Rt Brig Julius Maada Bio is the triumph of democracy and enthronement of the wishes of the people. All the bodies
mentioned earlier have this logical conclusion.
Unfortunately, the Carter Center that had personal relationship with the opposition presidential candidate Dr. Samura Kamara in the form of lobbyist in Washington DC, who has failed to accept that their friend lost the election.
As the Ambassador of the United States to Sierra Leone, you are expected to be an electoral umpire. Unfortunately, your statements have been used as the voice of the opposition All People’s Congress Party (APC) and made you the catalyst for change in Sierra Leone; a change that would bring in the Carter Center’s preferred government. This position, you well know, is at odds with the national aspiration and collective dream of our people.
Ambassador David Dale Reimer, the predominant elements of APC campaign are tribal sentiments garnished with delicate lies, divisions, and dangerous half-truths. The first casualties are always facts, logic, and truths. For two years, you have witnessed in amusement and horror how these unfold.
It may interest you and the Carter Center to recollect that on 10th August last year, insurrectionists under incitement attempted to overthrow the democratically elected government of His Excellency Rt Brig Julius Maada Bio. The insurrectionists with the insulting pretext of protest, engaged in devastation and barbarism by killing six innocent law enforcement officers, some civilians and undisturbed plunder of both private and government property.
Let me also recall your earnest attention and the Carter Center to the intentional campaign of treachery and deception used by the opposition All People’s Congress to hoodwink some sections of the youth into believing that a rebellion of gigantic magnitude was the means to change a legitimate government. For five years, politicians with dominant selfish political interests subjected the names of the president and first lady to malicious attacks and bitter denigration; urged disaffected youths to assassinate the president, form a de facto political regime and throw the country into turmoil.
Incitements have become strong opium driving some sections of the youths to arm rebellion and your statements and that of Carter Center since the polls of June 23rd play into the narratives of the stark-naked lies that have been sold by unscrupulous politicians.
Mr. Ambassador and Cater Center, your attention is respectfully invited to the US elections in 2020 and how the war of words about its credibility led to January 6th in the US Capitol. When you, Ambassador Reimer and Carter Center describe our election that has been endorsed by the UN, AU. Commonwealth, ECOWAS etc. as not credible, you are inviting residual elements of the wasted generation of youths to wreak havoc on Sierra Leone.
When you call on the Electoral Commission and school them how to do their work, you are jumping beyond the boundaries of your power. Some of your statements suggest you have not been able to shed your colonial baggage and see Sierra Leone as a free & fair democratic and sovereign nation/country. Those utterances catapulted you into a political axis on the wings of a viciously
manipulative opposition. Today, you & Carter Center have become a common currency on the lips of disaffected opposition members who have opposed the legitimacy of the government of His Excellency Julius Maada Bio.
Ambassador David Reimer, on March 24th 2021 you inherited a Sierra Leone where the Anti-Corruption Commission was liberating Sierra Leone from institutionalized corruption; where the Free Quality Education had opened the avenues to enlightenment for every Sierra Leonean; where freedom of the press and speech were at an all-time high; where the death penalty was completely abolished and where there was strict integrity and fair dealings with the rule of law on the side of government.
Is this the peaceful political atmosphere you intend to hand over to your successor?
Mr. Ambassador and Carter Center, your statement is serving as a conduit for corrupt politicians to throw Sierra Leone into political captivity. I appeal to you and the Carter Center to translate this flood of hopelessness into the audacity of hope for Sierra Leone.
I intend to share this communication with local, state and federal congressional delegation in the US who are friends of Sierra Leone and pro-democracy on both sides of the political spectrum.
I hope that your patriotism, statesmanship and devotion to democracy will propel you and the Carter Center to undo the damages you have caused in our political space before you depart the shores of Sierra Leone.
Respectully Submitted,
Mohammed Barrie
A concerned Sierra Leonean/American in the Boston, MA-New England Region
